City of Birmingham

Birmingham Mayor Says New Programs and Investments Will Lead to Brighter Days in 2025

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin speaks at the State of the Community event held at Boutwell Auditorium on January 14, 2025. (Photo by Daniel Gaddy)
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Speaking at his State of the Community event Tuesday, Mayor Randall Woodfin told the crowd at Boutwell Auditorium that the investments and new programs his administration has put in place will position the city to turn the page on its most violent year.

“2024 was a difficult year for not just our country, not just our nation, but what we felt here in Birmingham was personal,” Woodfin said before the crowd at Boutwell Auditorium Tuesday evening. “2024 was our midnight; I believe 2025 could be our dawn.”

Birmingham ended 2024 with 151 homicides, more than any single year in the city’s history. Woodfin in October announced the formation of the Birmingham Crime Commission, which released a report Jan. 6 providing more than 80 recommendations to curb violent crime.

The mayor said the report focused on five key areas:

  • Increasing police presence.
  • Banning conversion devices, often called Glock switches, that turn ordinary semi-automatic handguns into fully automatic pistols.
  • Collaborating among city leaders and law enforcement.
  • Investing in neighborhoods.
  • Creating educational and workforce opportunities for young black men.

Woodfin said city leaders have been laser-focused on those five areas and have either implemented or are working to implement the vast majority of the commission’s recommendations.

Woodfin also highlighted major projects or investments undertaken by his administration, including:

  • The One Hood program, which uses former violent offenders to reduce violence and organize advocacy in the community.
  • The continued investment in Birmingham Promise, which in its five years has allowed 1,600 Birmingham students to attend college or university in Alabama tuition-free. The project also placed 300 students in paid internships. Woodfin said the city’s amended budget for this year provides $2 million for the program.
  • The city’s new $16 million police retention and recruitment plan, which includes a $10,000 sign-on bonus for each new officer as well as quarterly bonuses.
  • More than $20 million in the 2025 budget for street resurfacing, sidewalks, traffic calming and expanded blight reduction efforts.

Woodfin added that a major asset in the effort to curb violence in the city is and will be the involvement of community members like those gathered for Tuesday evening’s event.

“The real point of what I’m saying, what I’m driving home, is that your engagement and your block on your street in your neighborhood is critical,” he said. “It is key to making sure we can drive out, push out bad elements that don’t belong in your neighborhood. If you’re a parent with a school-aged child, please make sure your child regularly attends school, because it’s there that we can educate them.”

Much of Tuesday’s event involved answering of questions residents wrote on cards for the mayor and city staff to answer.

Many of the questions and comments submitted by residents involved issues such as illegal trash dumping and nuisance properties.

In terms of illegal dumping, the mayor said recently passed laws are allowing city staff to use photos and videos submitted from the public to go after offenders and hold them legally responsible for the infractions. To help with those efforts, Woodfin urged residents to opt in to Connect Birmingham, a program that allows the Birmingham Police Department to access residents’ security cameras.

In terms of nuisance properties, city staff said a new state law concerning foreclosures will help expedite the legal process needed to remedy derelict properties.